Pro Cycling News From the USA Pro Challange

Iron Man

On Stage 1 of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge, Garmin-Sharp’s Dave Zabriskie, after doing much of the early work to set the day’s first breakaway, had just bridged to the lead breakaway from a chase group and was preparing to pull when his body revolted. He threw up his breakfast and drifted back, eventually finishing more than 12 minutes down.

Teammates Tom Danielson and Peter Stetina, also in the break, managed to get off the front on their own late in the race only to be absorbed just kilometers from the finish in Telluride.

“If Dave had been able to pull for even 10 more kilometers,” said Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters, “Tommy and Peter might’ve stayed away.”

On Stage 3, that possibility became reality. “Z” got in the break again, but this time, there was no physiological meltdown. This time, Danielson survived the almost day-long break to win in Aspen by just two seconds and credited the win to his tractor-like teammate.

“Zabriskie pulled like a freight train 70 kilometers up this giant valley,” said Danielson of his teammate’s work. “The guy is a bad, bad man, and I’m lucky to have him on my team. I owe him the victory today for sure.”

As of the finish of Stage 3, the USA Pro Challenge had traversed 355 miles. Zabriskie has been out front for well over 225 of them. Undaunted by his Stage 1 pukefest, he struck out early on Stage 2, then again on Stage 3.

In none of those instances has he been looking for his own result. Instead, he’s working for the team. Garmin’s tactic has been constant, relentless aggression, and Zabriskie is perhaps the most important key to making that approach work.

“Dave is very good at managing speed,” said Robby Ketchell. Ketchell is Garmin’s director of sports science, but on Stage 3 he was driving the lead team car and helped direct the strategy that led to the team’s win.

Managing speed is not the same as managing effort, he added. “A lot of guys are good at managing effort, but Dave knows how to make the group move so they’re making progress,” he said. “And because he’s so smooth and efficient he can do that multiple days in a row.”

As Zabriskie hit the front of the break over Cottonwood Pass, Ketchell said he told his rider to throttle back the effort.

“The plan was to get Dave in the break and have riders bridge,” he said, so he didn’t want the break too far out in front—at least, at that point. “Once Tommy D made the move and bridged, I just told Dave to drive it,” said Ketchell.

Even then, Danielson said that a number of the riders in the break were reluctant to work, because they figured the move was a no-hoper. In fact, at one point, Danielson admitted, “Even Dave and I didn’t think it would work.”

The break grew disorganized and UnitedHealthcare’s Jeff Louder attacked. At that point, Ketchell laid it out for his guys.

“I just said, ‘You either do this or not. There’s no wishy-washy or talking about it,’” Ketchell said. “And since we were already there, we didn’t have a lot of options. I just looked the guys in the eye and said, ‘Trust me, this is going to work; you’re going to be fine.’”

Zabriskie then laid down a hard but steady effort on the front, brought Louder back, and the group calmed down, with Zabriskie doing consistent three- to five-kilometer-long pulls.

Behind, BMC was forced to do the work to keep the gap steady on one of the world’s best time trialists, work that showed the stress when leader Tejay van Garderen was isolated for a time near the top of Independence Pass. “Dave was doing the lion’s share of the work,” said new overall leader Christian Vande Velde. “He was holding off the whole (BMC) team by himself.”

Danielson had almost two minutes at the summit, but riding a 30km descent solo against a chase of almost 30 pursuers, he needed every second of that advantage, seconds that Zabriskie provided.

At the finish, Zabriskie rolled in with a small group almost 18 minutes behind, but seemed almost relaxed. “Eh, pretty good,” he responded when asked how he felt after yet another long day out front. “Once you get used to it, it would be a shock to stay in the field and take it easy.”

For Stage 4, everyone we spoke with expects an early, serious attack as the race tackles Independence Pass again directly out of Aspen. Whether Zabriskie is a part of that remains to be seen.

Ketchell said he monitors the riders’ power files for total energy expenditure as a sign of fatigue, but relies on the riders themselves to speak up about what they can and can’t do. “To be honest, Dave is so good that he’ll probably recover well enough tonight to be able to do it again tomorrow,” said Ketchell.

Although Garmin now must defend the race lead, they may not ride conventionally on the front, preferring instead to stick with their attacking strategy. And Zabriskie might well be part of that.

It all raises the question: a comic-book fan, Zabriskie is known for his Captain America–themed national time-trial champion outfit. But after spending more than two-thirds of the race on the sharp end, might another nickname work—perhaps Iron Man?

“Nah, he’s got way more money than me,” Zabriskie said with a smile. Then he rolled off to the team hotel to get a meal, massage, and a night’s sleep before another day of work.